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Key players from this year’s Super Bowl winning team can still head to free agency and look for more money. Darrelle Revis, Devin McCourty and Steven Gostkowski are among some of the most important players for the Patriots to look at resigning.

The deal given to Revis has a team option to pick him back up for this season. With the way the secondary performed with him and McCourty this past season, it would be difficult to see Revis leave New England. The best way to keep Revis, and more importantly a happy Revis, would be to give him a multi-year deal.

If the Patriots pick up the option on Revis’s contract he will be a $25 million total cap hit. The money would be well spent and will secure the defensive back field, especially if McCourty resigns with the team.

ESPN’s Adam Shefter reported Wednesday night that an NFL official gave a Patriot’s locker room attendant an unapproved football. The official was in charge of collecting balls for the league to sell for charity. It was revealed that the league official was selling footballs for personal profit. The unapproved ball he gave to the locker room attendant was noticed by the referees and tossed out. Shefter reports that the league official was fired.

To clarify, the Patriots locker room attendant had an approved ball taken away from him and given an unapproved ball by a league official.

The locker room attendant, Jim McNally was given a ball by the official who has yet to be named, after a “K Ball,” went missing. The K balls are used for special teams only. McNally was a part of the investigation because he introduced the ball to the referees not knowing it wasn’t approved for game use.

In the last piece awards were given to Tom Brady (MVP,) Julian Edelman (Offensive Player of the Year,) Rob Gronkowski (Come Back Player of the Year,) and Brian Stork (Offensive Rookie of the Year.)

There are some defensive players that also deserve recognition for their outstanding individual performances this past season.

Defensive Player of the Year

The defensive player of the year was corner back Derrelle Revis. Revis Island had no vacancies this year. He led a tough group of corners for the Patriots. Although he did not put up huge numbers, he shut down opposing offense’s top receiver and allowed more time for his linebackers and defensive linemen to get to the quarterback.

This season, Revis had two interceptions and 47 tackles, and He kept his opponents relatively quiet. There is an option for Revis to return to New England next season, and why not stay with the team that you got a Super Bowl ring with?

The 2014-2015 NFL season has come to an end and the New England Patriots are Super Bowl champions. Football is a team game, but it is important to point out some of the key players that got the Patriots to the big game, and helped them bring home the Lombardi Trophy.

There are some awards Patriots101 would like to hand out to some of the players who deserve a little recognition for the great season they had.

MVP

The Most Valuable Player is the guy that your team can not function without, and this player is the heart and soul of the team. For the Patriots this player is quarterback Tom Brady. It is difficult not to pick Brady for this ever year. Without his leadership and work ethic the Patriots would accomplished what they did this season, and every season since he came into the starting quarterback role.

This year Brady threw for 4,109 yards, 33 touchdowns and posted a quarterback rating of 97.4. The only blemish on his stat sheet is the nine interceptions he threw, but he was still over a 3-1 touchdown to interception ratio.

The Seahawks had the ball on the Patriots three yard line with less than 30 seconds left in the game. The Seahawks lined up in shut gun formation and when Russell Wilson threw the pass, Patriots rookie defensive back Malcolm Butler saw it the whole way and made the interception inside the one yard line.

After the interception, the Patriots weren’t out of trouble yet with the ball inside the one yard line. The Patriots couldn’t kneel the ball because that would be a safety, giving the Seahawks two points and the ball. Luckily for the Patriots the Seahawks were called for encroachment and were given a first down a chance to kneel the ball.

Patriots quarterback Tom Brady received his third Super Bowl MVP trophy for his performance in the game. Brady threw for 37 completions, which is a Super Bowl record. He also had 328 passing yards and four touchdowns. He also threw two interceptions in the game.

“It took everything right down to the final play,” said Patriots quarterback Tom Brady.